


Where We Started

by Merlin Missy (mtgat)



Category: Static Shock
Genre: Getting Together, M/M, Yuletide Treat, bickering siblings, oblivious Virgil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:55:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28301958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mtgat/pseuds/Merlin%20Missy
Summary: A lot of things are changing in Virgil's life, but Sharon driving him up the wall will always be a constant.
Relationships: Richie "Gear" Foley/Virgil "Static" Hawkins
Comments: 14
Kudos: 59
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Where We Started

**Author's Note:**

  * For [laulan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/laulan/gifts).



Dakota seems smaller. Virgil's not sure how. Growing up here, it had seemed like the whole world, and that included after he got to go into space and hang out on the old Watchtower, or got shot into the future to meet his future self, or got shot into the past to see Moms. Come to think of it, he led a very weird life even before college. But he's graduated now, and he's living at home with Pops and Sharon while he sorts out job offers and also the rest of his life, and everything is smaller than it was, even them.

Sharon looks at him with her old familiar glare. "Just because your skinny butt got taller doesn't mean you don't have to wash the dishes."

"Hey, I'll get to it. Patrol first," he says, and she rolls her eyes. It's unfair. He's sure all the other superheroes he knows don't have to deal with their older sisters rolling their eyes at them. He can't picture Superman even having an older sister, and he knows Green Lantern and Batman don't have them.

As for the Flash …

Virgil's mouth turns.

"What?" asks Sharon. "Don't say your dinner is coming back up. You gulped it down yourself."

Virgil grumbles at her. "It's not that, but you could lighten up on the salt. That much can't be good for Pops and his arteries." Sharon throws a wadded-up napkin at him, and Virgil zaps it in midair, rending it to ash before it hits him.

"You're going to clean that up."

"Fine, fine," he says, and grabs the dustpan. "Anyway, it's nothing."

It is nothing. Nothing important. He and Richie were on patrol last night, and Flash dropped by working a case of his own. Virgil likes Flash. He's funny, and he's nice, and he treated Virgil and Richie like real heroes even while the rest of the League still looked at them like little kids doing cosplay. Flash is cool. Richie thinks so, too. They spent half of last night chatting while they worked, and Richie laughed at every quip Flash made. There's nothing bad about that, Virgil reminds himself. He knows he hangs on just about every word Green Lantern says. Nothing wrong with a little admiration for their fellow superheroes.

But every time Richie grinned at Flash, and Flash sure enough grinned back, something in Virgil's stomach gave an unhappy lurch.

It's nothing.

"Yeah, whatever," says Sharon. "You've got time to get the dishes washed. Your boyfriend didn't invite himself over for dinner, which means he won't be here for another hour at least."

Virgil dumps the ashes into the trash and spins, sputtering. "What the hell, Sharon?"

"What? You've got time before you go 'patrolling,'" she says, making the air quotes. "And yeah, don't tell me you and Richie don't spend half the time playing video games instead of working, because I don't buy it."

A number of hot words come to his lips. He pushes down most of them. "We don't spend our patrolling time playing games. The whole idea is being out there to fight crime."

"Right," she says. "Dish soap is in the cabinet." She turns and heads to the living room.

Virgil groans and looks at the dinner dishes. It's not really that bad. Pops is working late tonight, which means it's just the two of them and the scorched-on remains stuck to the pans Sharon used. He does have time before Richie will be over. He rolls up his sleeves and grabs the scrubber, trying not to think about what Sharon said, trying not to think about Flash grinning at Richie.

A sink full of dishes later, he drops the scrubber into the holder and goes into the living room where Sharon is flipping channels. "Happy?"

"Happy enough. When is Romeo getting here?"

Virgil flopped down onto the couch. "You need to quit that. Just because Richie came out is no reason to tease him about dating me. It's mean, and it's homophobic, and while I maintain you are the Devil incarnate, you're better than that."

Sharon snorts and stops on a home remodeling show. "If you think I'm teasing Richie, you really are as dumb as you look."

Virgil stares at her. "What does that mean?"

Without even looking at him, she says, "That beard stuck to your face has got to go. It looks dumb and no, you don't look anything like Green Lantern."

He runs a self-conscious hand over his chin. "It'll grow in." He remembers the older version of himself. Eventually it will grow in, if that future is anything to go by. He gets back to the point. "Richie isn't my boyfriend."

"No? You two have only been spending every night together for like ten years, and you moon over him when he's not around."

"That doesn't mean anything. We're friends. He is my best friend. Besides, I'm into girls."

"So? I didn't say you were gay." Her eyes narrow and she stares at him. "Unless this is your way of saying you are gay, in which case, you have to tell Pops yourself because he thinks you're just bi."

Virgil's jaw drops. "Okay, first," he says, when he can get his words together, "why did either of you ever have a conversation about if I'm bi, and second, never do that again."

Sharon shrugs. She's infuriating, and always has been. He loves her, he knows he does, but he thinks again how Batman and Green Lantern don't have sisters, and he's deeply jealous. The home remodeling show is boring. He gets up and heads to his room to change. He can go pick up Richie.

Twenty minutes later he's at Richie's window, knocking to be let in. Richie opens the sash. "Hey, V. Thought I was coming to your place before we headed out."

"Changed my mind. Sharon's being annoying."

"I hear you." Richie continues what he was doing, which turns out to be changing into his own costume. Virgil finds a spot in the bedspread to focus on rather than his suddenly far-less-dressed best friend. It's weird. They've seen each other get dressed plenty of times before. They roomed together in college. This shouldn't be weird, and Virgil feels like he's making it weird as Richie asks, "You okay?"

"I'm fine." His eyes find what looks like a new piece of tech on Richie's dresser. "Is this new?" he goes over to look at it, to give himself something to examine.

"That? Oh yeah. I'm working on an upgrade for the Shock Vox." Instead of dressing, Richie comes over and picks it up to activate it. Virgil is a little too aware of him standing there. Richie catches the look on his face. "You're not okay. What's up?"

"Nothing. Everything's fine. Get your stuff already."

"All right." Richie dons his costume. "You sure you're okay?"

Virgil waves his hand. "Sharon was trying to get into my head tonight. That's all."

"She really must've gotten to you. You know you could talk with your dad about it. She might not listen to you ever, but she might listen if he told her to knock it off."

"No, the last thing I want is Pops trying to fix things." Sharon's words about Pops replay in his head. "She's an adult. I'm an adult. We should be able to talk as adults."

"I guess. Which reminds me, my fellow adult, have you figured out which job offer you're taking yet? I'm kind of holding off on answering offers until you tell me which city we're moving to." Richie gives a little laugh. "Unless you want me to pick my best offer and you wind up somewhere else. You can, I guess," he says, watching Virgil's face. "We don't _have_ to move to the same place. I just thought it'd be better if we did. But not if that wasn't your plan. I'm still talking. I'll stop."

"I need to think about it."

"Right."

"I'm sorry for taking so long. I want us to wind up in the same place, too." That buys him a genuine Richie smile. "Let's go over offers when we get back from patrol and we'll see what's good for both of us."

"That sounds great!" Back-Pack climbs onto Richie's shoulders. As they head out the window, Richie says, "I got a really sweet offer from the Wayne Tech facility in Central City. We could get a place with Flash."

Virgil's stomach makes the same knot it did before. "Yeah. Great."

"Could be fun. The three of us hanging out all the time."

Virgil doesn't say anything as they head above the streets. He likes Flash. Flash likes Richie. "So," he says, ripping the bandage off as fast as he can. "Are you two, you know … ?"

Richie stares at him through his visor. "Are we what?"

Virgil shrugs. "Not my business. Sorry."

Richie zooms beside him. "I'm not seeing Flash. Sheesh, Virge. That's not how it works. I don't just want to date every guy we know."

"I know that. But Flash is cool. You know."

"I guess." They glide along in silence for a while. "Do you think I should ask him out?"

"No," Virgil says too quickly. "I mean, you can. That's your call. But if you're asking my opinion, no. He's great. Don't get me wrong."

"I know he's great." There's that stomach flip again. "He's not my type, but I like him."

"You have a type?"

Richie gives him a look not that different from the one Sharon gives him when she thinks Virgil is being stupid. "I try not to, but you know." He taps his head. "Can't help but notice patterns."

Virgil hasn't noticed any patterns but he also hasn't met anyone Richie's dated since he came out last year. He's not even sure Richie has been dating, which is a terrible thing to realize. This is his best friend and he hasn't been keeping up with important things with him. "Guess it's good to know. What is your type?"

Richie clams up. Virgil pokes his arm, and Richie points. Two guys are half a block away from them, in the process of relieving some lady from her purse. Right. Time for work. They're still getting used to being back home and the guys almost get away by running down a street that wasn't there four years ago. Almost.

Two more foiled robberies later and they're taking a break down by the docks. Despite how the Big Bang went down, some bad guys still think this is a great place to work. Not nearly as many Bang Babies are out there these days, not after the big power loss, and other metahumans had never set up shop here in Dakota. It's quiet tonight, relatively speaking, and he's taking a moment to be back here where everything began.

"You have a type?" Virgil asks, continuing the conversation even though he's not sure he wants to.

"Drop it, V. I don't mind you razzing me, but not everything is up for teasing."

"Fine, fine. I wasn't going to tease you." He smirks. "Would you tell Flash your type?"

Richie scowls at him. "For the last time, I'm not interested in Flash."

"Well, I'm certainly not interested in him."

A short, disgusted breath. "Of course not. You're straight." The slightest hitch in his voice says volumes. The flip in Virgil's stomach says more. He hates that he can hear Sharon's voice inside his head.

"Don't be so sure," he manages to say, and even these words feel like lead inside his mouth. Stuff he hasn't wanted to think about, stuff he's tried to bury, all of it piles up inside his head like a carpet thrown over a giant heap. He can't ignore it. Maybe he doesn't want to ignore it any longer. He looks at Richie, who is staring at him in shock.

"Really?"

"I don't know," Virgil says, folding his arms. "I mean, I guess I do know. I didn't want to think about it. Then you told me about you, and I did think about it, but I didn't want to, and then Sharon called you my boyfriend after dinner, but you were flirting with Flash, and I didn't know what to think." He's aware he's sounding a little whiny and confused. "It's just weird to me."

"V?"

"Yeah?"

"You're an idiot."

Virgil frowns at him, but Richie is already flipping open his face mask and to Virgil's surprise, that's Richie's mouth against his. To his bigger surprise, this is much better than he was expecting, and he kisses him back.

They look at each other for a moment, then Virgil swears. Richie's shoulders drop. "That bad?"

"Nope. I just hate it when Sharon's right. She's never going to let me live this down." Then he leans in and kisses Richie again, and it doesn't matter at all.


End file.
